


In Sincerity

by aretia



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Drunkenness, F/F, Sort Of, infected catra, it's not from alcohol but she acts drunk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-18
Updated: 2019-05-18
Packaged: 2020-03-07 12:39:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,124
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18873382
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aretia/pseuds/aretia
Summary: Entrapta upgrades the virus disc so that it now works on organic beings, not just First Ones tech. Catra messes around with it and gets infected, and while Entrapta looks for a cure, Scorpia has to deal with a very playful and affectionate Catra. Scorpia wrestles with guilt as her feelings toward Catra make her enjoy Catra’s intoxicated state more than she should.





	In Sincerity

“I did it!” Entrapta’s screech broke through the silence in the lab, startling Catra and making her fur fluff up. Scorpia stifled a giggle; she couldn’t let Catra find out that she thought it was adorable.

“What did you do?” grumbled Catra, as if she knew that Entrapta would start rambling about it anyway even if she didn’t ask.

“I repaired the virus disc! It’s good as new!” she announced, holding up the three-pointed maroon artifact in the palm of her glove. “And that’s not all I did! Not only did I put the pieces back together, I also upgraded it so that now it doesn’t only work on First Ones tech. It works on any sentient being, robotic or organic!”

Catra darted over to Entrapta’s side, peering over her shoulder at the disc. “Oh, that is so cool!” she chuckled. “With this, we don’t even need to capture Adora. Any of those rebel idiots can do our bidding for us…” She reached for the disc, while Entrapta leaned to the side and struggled to hold it out of her grasp.

“Catra, stop it!” Entrapta yelled. “I don’t think you should…”

Catra’s fingers curled around the disc, and her eyes flared red.

“…Touch that…” Entrapta trailed off.

Entrapta’s pigtails shot up to curl around a pipe hanging from the ceiling, and she pulled herself up and narrowly dodged Catra’s pounce. Snarling in frustration, Catra turned her sights on Scorpia.

“Oh no,” Scorpia muttered, holding her claws out and backing away slowly, while Catra stalked towards her. “You don’t want to do this. We’re friends! Right?” 

Catra grunted, and charged toward her. Luckily, the virus had made her much clumsier than usual. Scorpia sidestepped her at the last second, and let her crash into a pile of boxes stacked against the wall. Scorpia winced at the solid _thud_ Catra’s body made on impact, but she sprung back to alert when Catra started to push herself up and shake out her fur.

“I really don’t want to have to do this,” Scorpia said. She wrapped her arms around her from behind and lifted her off the ground, while Catra squirmed in her arms, clawing strips into her exoskeleton. “Entrapta! A little help here, please!” 

Entrapta swung across the pipes on the ceiling and dropped down in front of Scorpia and Catra. Scorpia maneuvered Catra’s arm towards Entrapta, who managed to pry the disc off of her palm. Entrapta encased it safely in her gloves, while Scorpia stumbled back to catch Catra, who had collapsed as if she were made of jelly.

“That was fascinating!” Entrapta crowed.

“Do you think you could focus on finding a way to cure her?” Scorpia snapped. Catra’s head lolled back against her chest.

“Right! I’ll get right to it,” Entrapta said. “As soon as I’m done recording notes from that last encounter…” She puttered off back to her desk.

Scorpia heaved Catra’s limp body up into her arms to carry her back to her room. “Guess you’re stuck with me until she figures out how to get you back to normal,” she said to Catra’s sleeping face. “That doesn’t sound so bad, does it? Just the two of us, best friends, hanging out. I mean, you won’t be conscious for it, but still…” 

Scorpia sighed. She had to admit that she had daydreamed about Catra swooning into her arms while she carried her out of danger, but this wasn’t one of those moments. She had to watch over Catra, and ignore how her proximity made her heart race.

Then, she felt an arm slide across her shoulders, and startled so badly that she almost dropped Catra. “Aah!” she yelped.

Catra burst into a fit of giggles. “Got you,” she slurred, like she was talking through a mouthful of taffy.

“You’re awake,” Scorpia said. “That’s… good. How are you feeling?”

“I feel all… spinny. Whee!” Catra stretched out her arms and legs, even her tail, so that it was difficult to balance her, and Scorpia nearly did drop her. Unsure that Catra’s cat-like reflexes would still land her on her feet in her intoxicated state, Scorpia hastily sat down, and let Catra sprawl out over her lap and the floor.

“If you’re feeling dizzy, maybe we should get you some water,” Scorpia said, concern wrinkling her features.

“Nah, ‘m good. I feel great,” Catra declared. As if to prove this point, she sprung to her feet. She paced around in a circle, then started to sway back and forth, and Scorpia had to dive forward to catch her when she toppled over.

“Maybe you should stay here, and not move too much,” Scorpia said, gathering Catra into her arms. If she thought controlling Catra’s rampage was hard, it was a piece of cake compared to the second phase. She was already exhausted from trying to protect her from herself.

Scorpia sat cross-legged with her back against the wall, and rested Catra on her lap. She seemed to get comfortable there, nuzzling her head against Scorpia’s shoulder, and Scorpia had to hold her breath to maintain her composure. Catra was so _close_ , and so _cuddly_ too. A blush tingled across Scorpia’s cheeks.

“You’re all red,” Catra blurted. “Like a lobster!” She picked up one of Scorpia’s claws and draped it over herself, then rolled off of Scorpia’s lap onto the floor, laughing hysterically.

“Scorpion, actually,” Scorpia corrected her quietly, but Catra was laughing too hard to hear her speak at all. The “lobster” jokes had a painful sting to them, reminding her of the times she had tried to fit in with the other princesses as a child and been harshly rejected. But seeing Catra so unabashedly mirthful softened the blow.

Catra sat up and wiped tears of laughter from her eyes. “You’re so funny,” she said, even though Scorpia hadn’t said anything to crack her up like that. “Will you be my friend?”

“Yes. We’re already friends,” Scorpia said patiently.

“We’re friends? Yay!” Catra jumped back into Scorpia’s lap, throwing her arms around Scorpia’s shoulders. Scorpia had to ignore the flutter of excitement in her chest at Catra being so elated about being friends. It was only the aftermath of the virus that made her act so bubbly. Scorpia wanted to believe that these were Catra’s true feelings, only revealed when she lost her inhibitions, but she had a completely different personality. Catra barely even paid attention to Scorpia when she was in her normal state, and she only seemed to acknowledge her when she needed something from her. 

Scorpia realized that she would miss this version of Catra, and guilt twisted in her stomach. She was supposed to protect Catra, and that meant watching out for her until Entrapta was able to cure the virus—but part of her didn’t want her to be cured. She wanted to keep this happier, friendlier, softer Catra in her life, and not go back to being ignored by the one person who was most important to her.

The sensation of Catra’s warm fur brushing against her shell made her feel as giddy as if she had been infected with the virus herself. She looked down at Catra lounging in her arms, blinking her eyes sleepily, and was entranced by her beauty as always.

When Catra was in this state, Scorpia could almost delude herself into believing that her feelings toward her were reciprocated. She doubted that Catra would resist if she tried to kiss her. She wouldn’t dare take advantage of Catra in such a vulnerable position, but the temptation was still there, eating away at Scorpia’s resolve.

Catra reached up to poke the spines on Scorpia’s shoulder. “You’re prickly,” she said. “But you’re also really soft.” She rested her head upon Scorpia’s breast and purred contentedly as she snuggled against her chest.

“That’s it, I can’t do this anymore,” Scorpia muttered, her cheeks burning with a hot blush. She extricated herself from Catra’s grasp, and placed Catra on the floor, where she flopped over onto her side. Scorpia stood up and turned her back to Catra. “You’re way too much for a girl to handle.”

She whirled back around again when Catra _whimpered_. It was a soft, pitiful sound that escaped her throat, in contrast to the loud and brash tone that characterized her infected personality. “You mean you don’t like me?” she asked, her voice cracking like she was close to tears, and it shattered Scorpia’s heart into a million pieces.

“Oh no, no, Catra, that’s not what I meant,” Scorpia said, rushing back to her side and kneeling next to her. She brushed Catra’s cheek with the back of her claw. “I like you, okay? I like you a lot. The problem is I like you _too_ much for your own good. I’m afraid I’m going to do something that we’ll both regret.”

The serious conversation went over Catra’s head, but at least she seemed to be out of her weepy mood already. She blinked a few times, then started giggling again. “I like you too,” she said.

“No, I mean like, _like_ -like,” Scorpia said, and then she bit her tongue. She hoped that Catra was so far gone that she wouldn’t remember anything she’d said to her once this was all over. “I don’t think you like me in _that_ way.”

“Yeah I do, silly,” said Catra, with unexpected clarity given her condition. She leaned closer to Scorpia, looking up at her with a coy expression, her fang tugging at her lower lip.

Scorpia’s breath caught in her throat. This was so wrong. Catra wasn’t herself. She was sick, and she was counting on Scorpia to keep her safe, not betray her trust. But if she was the one who initiated it, would it really be so forbidden? 

“I got it!” came Entrapta’s call, echoing through the metal hallways. Just like that, Catra passed out again, her head landing on Scorpia’s thigh, and Scorpia was overwhelmed with a strange mix of relief and disappointment.

Entrapta’s footsteps thumped down the hallway as she ran to Scorpia, holding the disc aloft in triumph. “I installed a kill switch!” she announced. “Did it work?”

“Ugh…” Catra groaned, rubbing her head and pushing herself up out of Scorpia’s lap. “What happened?”

“I think it worked,” Scorpia said to Entrapta.

“What are you talking about?” Catra asked. 

“You touched Entrapta’s new-and-improved virus disc,” said Scorpia. “It made you go on a rampage. Then, when Entrapta pried it off of you, it made you go all loopy, and then…” Scorpia trailed off, realizing that the rest of the story was something she’d much rather let Catra forget.

But Scorpia didn’t forget it. She would never forget how it felt to be wanted and accepted by her beloved Catra, even if it was all an illusion.

“Hey, what are you looking so down about?” Catra quipped, interrupting Scorpia’s thoughts. “I thought everything was always sunshine and rainbows in Scorpia-land.”

Scorpia perked up at that, head tilting to the side. Even though Catra was back to her sarcastic self, something in that statement made it sound like she cared, even though she was trying to hide it. Not only had she made a comment about Scorpia’s usual emotional state, she had noticed a change in it just by paying attention to Scorpia’s expression and body language. That level of acute observation was something that virus-Catra could never give her.

“Ah, yes, I guess I was just lost in thought,” Scorpia said, her mood instantly elevated. “I’m really glad you’re back, Catra.”

“No kidding,” Catra agreed. “You should really work on fixing the side effects of that thing, Entrapta.”

“I’m already on it!” Entrapta said eagerly, scurrying back to her lab.

“I need to go take a nap and sleep this off,” Catra said. She stood up and stretched, then headed down the hall in the other direction, back to her room. But first, she spared a glance over her shoulder at Scorpia. She met her eyes, and there was a brief flash of a knowing smile before she walked away. 

Scorpia felt like she had just been struck through the heart with an arrow. How much did Catra remember? Was she okay with everything that had transpired?

Whatever that look meant, it gave Scorpia hope that the Catra she had met while she was infected by the virus and the Catra she knew and loved were the same. Somewhere under her rough exterior was a Catra who liked laughter and cuddles and wasn’t afraid to express her emotions, and someday Scorpia would get to see that side of her again, this time without the help of Entrapta’s tech. Her own patience and persistence were all she needed.


End file.
